How Does the New Alpine A110S Compare to the Porsche 718 Cayman T?

The latest is called the Alpine A110S and it competes directly with Porsche's 718 Cayman T.

If you think about it, that's how all European sports cars used to be made - lower displacement, poise, and balance. The main thing that's changed is turbocharging.

The Alpine A110 has been on sale for a while now, and while we would have preferred to see a production version of the overland-style SportsX concept, they decided to make a more focused performance version. But you know who else produces a focused sports car? Porsche, with its equally new 718 Cayman T being a worthy opponent.

Getting to the center of these candy-shaped machines, we find that the 718 Cayman T is powered by a 2.0-liter boxer-four with an output of 296 hp and 280 lb-ft (380 Nm) of torque. Those sound like hot hatch specs, and while it's not the subject of our story, we also included a video versus the A 45S hatch.

As for the Alpine, its powertrain of choice is a 1.8-liter turbo, which is a normal inline-4 that produces 288 hp and 236 lb-ft (320 Nm) of torque. Thankfully, the aluminum chassis is pretty light, so the 0 to 62 mph (100 kph) sprint happens within only 4.4 seconds. The Cayman T is a little quicker and faster, but not by much.

Somehow, Renault is almost praised for the sound of its engine while Porsche gets two thumbs down on its Cayman. But that's mainly because we've been spoiled by years of six-cylinder Caymans.

So which is better? Apparently, it's really close, with one Autocar editor loving what both A110 models can do on a normal road and the other preferring the depth of the Cayman T's abilities.